


(We Will) Never Be Afraid Again

by Alexeigynaix (EllieMurasaki), AlexSeanchai (EllieMurasaki)



Category: Hellenistic Religion & Lore, Spectrum - Florence + the Machine (Song)
Genre: Disabled Character of Color, Gen, LGBTQ Female Character of Color, Political Content, Religious Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-22 22:04:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10706064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieMurasaki/pseuds/Alexeigynaix, https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieMurasaki/pseuds/AlexSeanchai
Summary: Have you ever looked into a flame andknownthat there is something holy there, something set-apart?





	(We Will) Never Be Afraid Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LoveChilde](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoveChilde/gifts).



You don’t understand. Very well; we have time. Let me try to explain.

This may make more sense if I begin at the beginning—with Hestia. She called to me, you realize—have you ever looked into a flame and _known_ that there is something holy there, something set-apart? If you have, you may have caught a glimpse of Her.

I did. I touched Her hand. I burned my fingers trying, but ah! what bliss!

Consider, if you will, the center of your life, as it was before we entered it. Your home, surely? —Ah, I see that it was not. A pity; you might understand better if it were.

Do consider your home, though. Where you lay down to sleep for the night and where you rose to greet the day. Where you prepare food and—oh, of course, you are a married man. It was always your wife who cooked? I see that it was.

I am not sure whether to be glad or sorry she isn’t here. She might help you understand, but then she would share your fate.

Let me say this, then: All politics are local.

Ah, that you grasp!

Decisions are made by those who show up, as you know, Bob. May I call you Bob? Good. A member of the school board might be elected by a margin of a mere dozen votes, and no one would find that odd. A state senator might win by only two hundred.

Hestia taught me that. Or perhaps to speak more clearly—I value clarity—She instructed me to learn it. She spoke to the power of a single determined individual, or a small group, to create lasting change.

So. In my home jurisdiction—in that place where my roots dig into the ground and I rise up transformed, understanding things I could not before; I think you cannot understand this so I shall not trouble myself to explain—I knew I would make, _could_ make, no real, lasting difference if I were to work within the system. People like you, you see—you think that your dollars speak louder than our words—and because people listen when money speaks, you are not even wrong! So. I would not be able to gain position within the system without being corrupted by it.

I chose a different path.

You do not understand my reasoning, I see. Have you ever heard that money cannot buy happiness? It can buy defenses against unhappiness, to be sure, but one person needs only so much to ensure a roof overhead and food on the table and all ills and injuries safely tended. As you know, Bob. But you do not understand that once all needs are attended to and—within reason—some wants met, money cannot buy happiness?

Ah, I see. I find I almost pity you.

So I began Cerulean. I, and—well, I shall not _name_ them, you understand; it is not for you, who barely deserves a name at all, to know who we are. But I shall _call_ them: Lei-Jin, and Jyoti, and Niva, and Zahra, and Deborah, and Rina, and Crystal, and Margaret, and I. You may call me Ignacia.

I do not believe you need to know any details of our actions, beyond that which you already know, Bob. So I shall not elaborate. But you witnessed our results. Lines of Lei-Jin’s poetry quoted on every street corner in this town. A symbol Jyoti first drew, echoed in street art from sea to shining sea. Niva’s short films in Tumblr reaction gifs around the world.

And you witnessed what our message gained us. Supportive messages flowing in faster than Zahra could read them. Vicious messages attacking faster than Deborah could delete them. Money growing faster than Rina could count it.

And you witnessed what our support gained us. People wearing all gray from masks to mackintoshes and all blue from jeans to jewelry, whom Crystal led in action that misty morning, and whom Margaret led in prayer—you may well have heard her voice, cold and clear and steady and strong.

And you witnessed what our newfound power gained us. Look: here you are.

Let me return to Hestia. She is the hearth fire around which every home centers. That is, _if_ She is treated with the respect that is Her due. If She is not, She will burn. She will become a forest fire if need be—a conflagration.

From Her we took our inspiration.

So. We came for you, all dressed in blue, and we came to pray, all dressed in gray. And you took neither of those well, did you, Bob? For power in the hands of poor women and queer women and disabled women, young women and old women and trans women, women of color and women of strength and women of power—why, we are a threat. And our Gods are a threat, and They are many, and _we_ are many, and _your_ God is but one.

And so, you killed us all.

Yes, and you know you did; I remember my tongue piercing, silver and sapphire, and one of my people found that very stone among your possessions. Not your first mistake, to be sure, but certainly your last.

And we came back, all dressed in black. Persephone would have none of us till the task Hestia set is done, and Haides will welcome us gladly—but not yet.

I shall not explain why we did what we did, nor indeed shall I explain what it is we did. We can’t have you attempting it yourself. You know that, Bob.

Tell me: Do you understand, now, how it feels to be pursued by that which is relentless?

Because we have always known how such a thing feels. The world has always wanted us dead and gone, because the world has always been controlled by people just like you.

We have no need to eat. We have no need to sleep. You are the first, Bob. You shall not be the last.

And so it ends with Hestia. Do you see Her, Bob? Do you see Her eyes in the flame?


End file.
